TUESDAY'S TREAT

This week I experienced a "first". My favorite niece and I decided to try making a pie from scratch,crust and all. We have always enjoyed some of the same things; shopping for shoes, manicures and pedicures, and cooking among them. Now that she's all grown up and working and I have moved 4 hours away we don't get together very often. It was a real treat to make our first "made from scratch" pie. We compliment each other in the kitchen. She's not afraid to try new things and tweak the recipe and I love to collect and try new recipes. She has lots of energy and ideas and I have plenty of time and a kitchen. We chose to make an apple pie from a recipe in THE COOKING LIGHT COOKBOOK. She wanted to try a lattice crust so we chose a recipe for pastry from another pie in the same book. It actually turned out very well. It was definitely an adventure for us and from now on we are officially "The PIE-O-Neer Girls"! The lattice crust looked good but we decided that the full crust would have probably made the filling juicier. I am including the recipe for the full crust.

APPLE PIE

8 cups thinly sliced peeled Braeburn apples- about 8 medium (we used Granny Smiths)

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

2/3 c. sugar

3 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. salt

Remaining ingredients:

cooking spray

1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1 tbsp. sugar

Preheat oven to 450

Prepare double- crust pastry

To prepare filling, combine apple and lemon juice in a large bowl. Combine sugar and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle sugar mixture over apple; toss well to coat.

Fit large piece of dough into a 9 inch deep-dish pie plate with cooking spray, allowing dough to extend over the edge. Spoon filling into crust, brush edges of dough lightly with water.

Place 11 inch piece of dough on top and press edges of dough together. Fold edges under and flute. Cut 4 slits in top of pastry using a sharp knife. Brush top and edges of pie with egg white; sprinkle with 1 tbsp. sugar.

Place pie on a baking sheet and bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350(do not remove pie from oven), and bake an additional 40 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

DOUBLE-CRUST PIE CRUST

2 c. all-purpose flour

6 tbsp. ice water

1 tsp. cider vinegar

2 tbsp. powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

7 tbsp. vegetable shortening

Lightly spoon 2 c. flour into dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine 1/2 c. flour, ice water, and vinegar, stirring with a whisk until well blended to form a slurry. Combine 1 1/2 c. flour, powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp. salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add slurry; toss with a fork until flour mixture is moist. Divide dough in half. Press each half into a 4 inch circle on 2 sheets of overlapping plastic wrap; cover with 2 additional sheets of overlapping plastic wrap. Roll one dough half, till covered, into a 12 inch circle and the other into an 11 inch circle. Chill dough 10 minutes or until plastic wrap can be easily removed.